Surf Cat

In that, I’m in good company.

When I was a nervous 12-year-old kid sitting on a folding chair in the basement of the downtown Kenosha News building, Dennis taught me how to handle a newspaper route, as he did for so many newspaper carriers over so many years.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

Like a lot of long-term relationships, this one begins with a happy accident.

Serpe’s first day at the Kenosha News — Oct. 2, 1972 — came about thanks to a timely phone call.

“I was getting married in 1973,” Dennis explained over lunch Tuesday. “My future mother-in-law got a phone call, asking if her son wanted to come back and work at the Kenosha News again. She said no, he was working somewhere else but added, ‘my future son-in-law needs a job.’”

Serpe showed up in the circulation department, where he was told to grab a set of keys and get in a truck.

“But I didn’t know how to drive a stick-shift, so I couldn’t take the job,” he said.

On his way out of the building, he walked past longtime News executive Bill Schulte, who told him, “maybe you can come and help me.”

“I think he felt bad for me because I was so disappointed,” Serpe said. “I always think if I had walked out a different door, I would never have worked here.”

His first job at the News was far from glamorous; he worked on a machine printing out 700 address labels each day to be wrapped around papers and sent out of town.

In May of 1973, a District Manager job opened up, and he suddenly was in charge of about 100 newspaper carriers who, in those days of afternoon newspapers, were students walking (or biking) the routes after school.

That’s how I met him, as did so many young carriers over the years.

“I loved working with those kids,” Serpe said. “I still run into people who tell me they had paper routes, and they thank me for that job, which taught them responsibility. You had to be on time, and if someone paid you for several weeks in advance, you had to budget that money.”

When Serpe started that job, he was just 20 years old — “not that much older than some of the teens with paper routes” — and he “enjoyed seeing them mature.” By the time I had a paper route, Serpe was a grizzled veteran at age 23, with a mop of curly brown hair and enough charm to command the attention of squirming kids who were learning they had to knock on doors and collect money from people. The hair is silver now, and the charm has only grown.

Serpe joined the advertising department — “moving upstairs,” as he puts it — in March of 1980 as an Associate Salesperson.

“That was a title they gave you while they saw how you did,” he explained. “You had no accounts; you had to go out and find advertisers.”

Serpe was later promoted to head of Retail Advertising and Assistant Advertising Director.

Those were busy years for Serpe, who recalls, “I had 75 to 100 active accounts, and at that time, you had to get the ad ready and then take it to the advertiser to get approved. When the fax machine came in, that was a huge change. We didn’t have to go running around so much.” (Another huge change was putting ad tickets into a computer instead of on paper. “We all hated it at first but had to get used to it,” he said.)

He listed several News employees who “were great friends and mentors to me”: Jim Hawkins, Bill Bastian, Tim Boyle, Don Orth, Frank Misureli, Gene Schulte, Ken Dowdell, Ron Montemurro and longtime News publisher Howard J. Brown.

“I almost hate to mention anyone because I don’t want to leave anyone out,” he said.

Outside of the Kenosha News, one of his mentors was Ralph Tenuta, the longtime owner of Tenuta’s Deli & Liquors, a Kenosha landmark packed with imported Italian and domestic foodstuffs.

“I handled his account for more than 35 years and watched that business really grow,” Serpe said. “He taught me so much, especially not to dwell in the past but to always look forward. He would tell me: ‘Look back, Dennis, but don’t stare.’”

In a wide-ranging talk, we covered many topics over the past half century:

Why stay so long at the News? “Working with all those good people,” Serpe said. “It’s also a challenge every day to put out a newspaper, so it never gets boring.”

Was advertising decades ago the way it’s portrayed in the TV show “Mad Men”? “I missed those days by a few decades, but it really was like that,” Serpe said. “The most successful salesman at the News would take his clients to the Elks Club and sell ads over three-martini lunches.”

How did you weather all those changes over the years? “I always thought if you had a good work ethic and were fair and honest with people, it would work out. I looked out for my customers, and they looked out for me.”

Why should someone subscribe to the Kenosha News? “You can’t find this local news anywhere else. A newspaper is the voice and the face of the community.”

What advice would you give your 20-year-old self? “Let go of what you can’t control. In a hundred years, it’s not going to mean much, as Mr. Brown told me.”

On feeling blessed. “They say you have luck three different times in your life,” Serpe said. “With me, it was No. 1, my wife, Mary. No. 2, I didn’t get drafted and, No. 3, working at the Kenosha News.”

Favorite moments from his long career. “I remember being offered a full-time job in 1973 and how proud my parents were that it was at the Kenosha News,” he said, adding, “It was also great on Christmas Eve when Gene Schulte would hand out our Christmas bonus checks.”

“I want to stay healthy and travel with Mary, my best friend and partner,” he said. “All those years when I was working seven days a week, she never complained about all the times I went into work.”

He’s also looking forward to enjoying more time with his eight grandchildren, who range in age from 6 to 23.

Serpe has worn many hats here over his decades at the paper, but he has a very special talent not related at all to the news business.

Through all the many years and all the people he has come into contact with, no one has a bad word to say about Dennis Serpe. In fact, the mere mention of his name brings a smile to everyone’s face.

We’re going to miss his spark, his energy and his love of life here at the Kenosha News. Lucky for us, he’s not going anywhere. If I need a Dennis Serpe fix — say on a gloomy winter afternoon — you’ll find me sitting in a courtroom, winking at the bailiff and remembering how he taught me not to throw a newspaper into the bushes. Apparently, people really hate that.